Contents

Name

In this continuity, Godzilla gains his name from the Pacific Islanders, who refer to him as "Gojira". Most of the English-speaking characters eventually start to call him "Godzilla" over the course of the film's events. In Godzilla: Awakening, he is called M.U.T.O at first due to him not having a name yet.

Design

Appearance

For Godzilla's return, it was decided to give the King of the Monsters a newly revamped look. Thus, he was given a new design that didn't look radically different from the established Godzilla designs like the TriStar Godzilla design from the 1998 film did, but like the TriStar design, it was intended to look more realistic. Just like the 2007 Godzilla design, this design is completely computer generated. Lead creature and concept designer Matt Allsopp, and WETA Workshop creature designers Andrew Baker, Christian Pearce and Greg Broadmore were tasked with bringing Godzilla into a contemporary reality while honoring his classic silhouette.

The 2014 design's face is shaped very squarely, its neck is broad and has shark-like gills, making this the first Godzilla design to feature gills. His eyes are small and a golden yellow color, and his teeth are small and not nearly as straightly lined up as in previous Godzilla designs. The head and neck seem to lean forward more and the nostrils are more separate, being on opposite sides of the snout, and making him more reptile-like instead of the more mammalian fashion of being close together in the front compared to past designs. According to Andrew Baker, the filmmakers studied the faces of dogs, bears, and eagles in order to make Godzilla's face look noble and majestic, yet not too cute or threatening.[4]

His dorsal fins are smaller than the previous designs, but they still retain the core maple-leaf shape, although straighter and very sharp, somewhat like the MireGoji's creating a more jagged look when rising from the water. Godzilla's claws are black in color, and his feet are wider, resembling an elephant's feet with larger claws than the other Godzilla designs. His skin is more reptilian and crocodile-like, and rougher than the other designs, and is a very dark gray (almost black) color. His body and tail are very wide as well, making him look somewhat bulkier than other Godzilla designs.

Legendary has confirmed that their Godzilla's tail is 550 feet and 4 inches long, his height is 355 feet, there are exactly 89 dorsal spines running down his back, the palm of his hands are 34 feet and 4 inches each, and that his roar can be heard from 3 miles away, loud enough to make an opponent go deaf.[1]

Portrayal

Godzilla is portrayed through CGI and keyframe animation, with partial motion capture performance from T.J. Storm.[5] Andy Serkis, who performed motion capture for King Kong in Peter Jackson's 2005 remake, was consulted to make the Legendary Godzilla and the M.U.T.O.s' computer-generated movements more realistic.[6]

VFX supervisor Jim Rygiel said that this Godzilla's fighting style was based on those of bears and komodo dragons as they stand up tall and barge their opponents backwards with their arms. In the film, Godzilla is seen doing this with the female M.U.T.O..[7] According to Moving Picture Company VFX supervisor Guillaume Rocheron, Godzilla's movements were also inspired by lions and wolves.[8] This incarnation of Godzilla was designed to be as biologically plausible and "realistic" as possible, with the design process being to try and imagine what Godzilla would look like as a believable, real, natural animal.

Roar

Since the Godzilla roar is considered one of the most famous sound effects in film history, sound designers Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van Der Ryn were tasked with paying homage to it while revamping it and creating something new.

According to Edwards, they spent six months over the three-year production experimenting with different techniques such as a pine tar-coated leather glove on a double bass trying to match the initial metallic shriek, the following wail, and the finishing bellow of Godzilla's iconic roar. Using microphones that could record sound inaudible to human ears, the team recorded hundreds of sounds at a 192 kHz sample rate before slowing them down to an audible range until they stumbled upon the combination that gave them goosebumps.[9]

The final version that was created was the 50th the team produced. The pair tested the roar on a back lot at Warner Bros., using a 100,000 watt tour speaker array for The Rolling Stones. The roar was powerful enough to rattle pipes and rooftops, and was estimated that it could be heard up to three miles away.

Personality

In Godzilla, Godzilla's behavior seems to be that of a territorial animal. Ishiro Serizawa theorized that Godzilla is the driving force to restore balance to nature whenever that balance is disrupted, suggesting that he essentially considers the entire Earth to be his territory.

However, unlike previous incarnations, he doesn't blatantly attack or plow through ships at sea simply because they're there. In fact, with larger ships like aircraft carriers, he simply dives down under them. Even when he was attacked by the military, he didn't noticeably react or fight back and simply continued to hunt the M.U.T.O.s, even when he was being followed in close proximity by four naval ships. As opposed to any sort of morality, it appears to be that he simply considers humans to be tiny and insignificant. He does not care about their general well-being but at the same time does not consider them worth destroying even though they, without harming him at all, fire at him nonstop.

He also does not seem to cause destruction on purpose. Even when he destroyed the Golden Gate Bridge, it did not appear to be intentional, but rather just him reacting from being hit in the gills by missile fire. He shows little interest in humans, instead focusing his attention entirely on the M.U.T.O.s. After defeating both M.U.T.O.s, he leaves the humans alone without any more conflict.

Godzilla does however occasionally show signs of higher thought, as he is shown adapting his strategies to fight the M.U.T.O.s and even uses a sleight-of-hand tactic to trick the male M.U.T.O. into coming into attacking range to strike him with his tail, impaling him on a fallen skyscraper. He also appears to have some degree of emotion, as he briefly looks Ford Brody in the eye when he collapses to his level. This is completely opposite of what William Randa thought of him, as he said Godzilla had no conscience and lived only to destroy. However, given that Randa was the only survivor of Godzilla's attack on the battleship that he was stationed aboard, it is extremely likely that he was prejudiced completely against Godzilla and harbored hatred of him due to losing his shipmates and nearly his life.

Godzilla was designed to have a personality that would evoke the "last samurai" archetype, and be a lone, ancient warrior content with solitude and preferring not to be a part of the world but has to resurface when certain types of events force him to appear and set things right.

Origins

For Godzilla's return, the King of the Monsters was given a radically new origin story that deviates from the previous established origin of him being mutated by the Hydrogen bomb.
In Godzilla: Awakening, the prequel to Godzilla, Godzilla is explained to be an ancient life form from the Permian period. As the planet cooled, and its natural atmospheric radiation began to decrease, he adapted to survive various extinction events by diving deep into the ocean and consuming the planet's natural geothermal radiation in a hibernation-like state from its molten core until 1954, when a nuclear submarine woke him up.

Godzilla was theorized by Ishiro Serizawa to have been the alpha predator of his ecosystem, and prevented the other species from overpopulating and overrunning the world, acting as a force of nature that maintained balance.

History

An ancient alpha predator that thrived during the Permian period, Godzilla retreated to the ocean depths as the radiation levels of Earth's surface declined, instead feeding on the planet's natural geothermal radiation from its core. Godzilla remained dormant underwater for hundreds of millions of years, appearing occasionally at various points in human history, inspiring the mythologies of several cultures. In 1954, an American nuclear submarine unknowingly awakened him when it reached the lower depths of the ocean, drawing him to the surface in search of new sources of radiation. Godzilla attacked and fed on American and Soviet nuclear submarines in the South Pacific Ocean, with each nation believing the other was responsible for the attacks.

When Godzilla's existence became known, the American military began detonating a series of nuclear bombs in the Marshall Islands to try and kill him, under the guise of nuclear testing. On March 1st, 1954, Godzilla was lured ashore at Bikini Atoll, where the American military detonated their first-ever dry-fuel hydrogen bomb, code named Castle Bravo, in an attempt to kill him. Godzilla vanished following the detonation, and the United States covered up all evidence of his existence. A scientific organization known as Monarch was formed to study Godzilla and any other supersized "hyperfauna" like him, and continued to search for him in the following decades.

In 2014, Godzilla detected the mating call of a M.U.T.O., a parasitic lifeform that lived during his era and laid its eggs in corpses of his species. In order to preserve his own existence, Godzilla came ashore in Honolulu to fight the winged male M.U.T.O. before it could reunite with its female counterpart and reproduce. Godzilla confronted the M.U.T.O. at the Honolulu airport, engaging in a brief clash before the M.U.T.O. flew back out over the ocean. Godzilla returned underwater and continued pursuing his enemy. The United States military believed Godzilla to be just as big a threat as the M.U.T.O., although Monarch scientist Ishiro Serizawa stated that Godzilla was only present to hunt the M.U.T.O. and that he should be allowed to do so.

When the female M.U.T.O. emerged in Nevada and began heading to California to reunite with the male, the military formed a plan to lure Godzilla and both M.U.T.O.s out to a remote island and kill them all with a nuclear warhead several times more powerful than Castle Bravo. Serizawa believed the detonation would fail to kill any of the creatures and warned William Stenz, the Navy admiral in charge of the operation, to call off the attack. Stenz regretfully told Serizawa they had no choice and allowed the warhead to be armed and carried by boat over San Francisco Bay.

The male M.U.T.O. used its electromagnetic pulse ability to disable the military's vehicles and stole the warhead, using it as a food source for the nest in which the female would lay its eggs. Godzilla emerged from the Bay shortly afterward, surfacing near the Golden Gate Bridge. Tanks were deployed onto the bridge and opened fire on Godzilla while civilians were attempting to cross it. Godzilla withstood the artillery fire until a blast hit him in the gills, causing him to accidentally smash into the bridge and split it in two. Godzilla shrieked and continued to approach the city, where the M.U.T.O.s had constructed their nest. Shortly afterwards, Stenz has a talk with Serizawa and in the process, finally has a change of heart. Realizing that Godzilla may be the only one capable of destroying the M.U.T.O.s, Stenz and the military finally allowed him to proceed into the city.

When Godzilla entered downtown San Francisco, the male M.U.T.O. attacked him while its mate laid her eggs. Meanwhile, Brody and several other soldiers were sent into the heart of the city via HALO jump to recover and disarm the warhead before it could explode. Godzilla finally reached the nest and roared at the female M.U.T.O., who charged at Godzilla and tried to attack him, but Godzilla barged her backward and pinned her to the floor. Soon, the male reentered the battle and Godzilla ended up getting overpowered. With the nest unguarded, the soldiers recovered the warhead, while Ford Brody opened a gasoline line, causing the entire nest to explode in a fireball.

Both M.U.T.O.s witnessed the explosion and stopped pummeling Godzilla and rushed back to their nest. The female M.U.T.O. howled in anguish and sadness over her dead offspring, but became enraged upon seeing Brody near the nest. Before the M.U.T.O. could kill him, Godzilla emerged from behind her, and attacked with a sudden blast of his atomic breath, buying time for Brody to escape and for the other soldiers to carry the warhead to the docks. The male flew behind Godzilla and pulled him out of the way, allowing the female to chase after the soldiers. As the male flew behind Godzilla to try and grab him again, Godzilla swung his tail, causing the M.U.T.O. to impale itself on a skyscraper, killing it. Godzilla stopped for a moment to catch his breath, only for the skyscraper to collapse onto him and bury him in rubble. As Godzilla laid on the ground being buried in debris, he caught a glimpse of Brody, who was running to the docks. The two briefly stare at each other before Godzilla dissapears in a cloud of dust and debris.

Brody continued onward and reached the docks, only to witness the female M.U.T.O. kill all of his companions. Brody grabbed the warhead and placed it on a boat, preparing to send it out to sea where it could detonate safely. Suddenly, the boat's engine deactivated as the female M.U.T.O. approached, her EMP field disabling all nearby electronics. Brody drew his pistol and aimed it at the M.U.T.O., fully expecting to be killed. Just then, out of nowhere, Godzilla came up behind the M.U.T.O. and bit down on her neck, pulling her away from the boat. Godzilla grabbed the M.U.T.O's jaws with his claws, pried them open, and finished her off in a "Kiss of Death" by firing his atomic breath down her throat until her neck blew open and her head tore off, killing her instantly. After decapitating the female M.U.T.O., Godzilla roared victoriously before dropping the M.U.T.O's head and collapsing to the ground due to exhaustion. The boat reactivated and began heading out of the bay, while Brody was rescued by a helicopter and the boat exploded with the warhead far from the city.

The next morning, San Francisco was in ruins, while military and emergency personnel surrounded Godzilla's unconscious body. Serizawa and his assistant Vivienne Graham looked sadly at Godzilla, believing him to be dead. Suddenly, Godzilla's nostrils flared and he began to stir. Everyone, wondering what was going on, looked at him, and Godzilla's eye opened, confirming that he was okay. Shortly afterwards, Ford, Sam, Elle, and other families were finally reunited. Meanwhile, as Godzilla stood up and began walking back out to the ocean, the media hailed him as the "King of the Monsters" and a hero who saved San Francisco. As a result of that, the city’s residents began cheering for him. When he finally reached the shoreline, Godzilla let out one last victorious roar before sinking back into the sea and disappearing beneath the waves.

Though not referred to by name, Godzilla is mentioned by William Randa, who stated that the 1954 nuclear tests were not tests, but attempts to kill him. Randa also stated that he was the only survivor of one of Godzilla's attacks on a military battleship during that time.

He also appears in the post-credits scene, along with Mothra, Rodan, and Ghidorah. In the post-credit scene, he is shown as a cave painting, implying that he was worshiped similar to Kong as a god (hence the word "God" in his name).

Another cave painting shows him fighting Ghidorah. The scene cuts to black and Godzilla's roar is heard, implying that he will be seen again.

Abilities

Amphibious nature

In Godzilla, Godzilla now possesses gills/amphibious lungs so he can stay underwater indefinitely, but he closes them when he's on land and uses his lungs. These gills appear to be his weak points, as Godzilla reacts aggressively whenever he is struck in the gills by artillery fire or strikes from the M.U.T.O's claws.

Atomic breath

As shown in Godzilla, Godzilla's atomic breath was more of a focused, fiery shaped energy beam that Godzilla spews out. Godzilla only used it against the M.U.T.O.s after he had taken a severe beating and was already growing weaker, showing that Godzilla only uses it as a last resort against opponents he can't physically overpower on his own.

Though it doesn't appear to have the same destructive properties as the versions prior, the blasts were strong enough to push back, severely weaken, and eventually kill, the female M.U.T.O., showing that while it may not have the destructive force of its predecessors, this version of Godzilla's atomic breath is still incredibly deadly in its own right.

It is entirely possible, however, that Godzilla never used his atomic breath at its full power, seeing as the glow from his dorsal spikes was very faint. This is also seeing as how Godzilla was already extremely weakened in battle and had used up a lot of energy when he began using it, while the film's official novelization and an earlier screenplay suggest that the female M.U.T.O's EMP field interferes with his atomic breath, so whether or not it's capable of more is unknown at this point. The neon-blue glow on Godzilla's dorsal plates begins at the tip of his tail and goes all the way to the top of his neck in this film, and to let the audience know when he was going to fire it, it makes an electric humming sound.

In the prequel comic Godzilla: Awakening, his breath is far more intense and beam-like in appearance, implying that his breath is not at full power in the film and can be even stronger when he is in better condition.

Durability

In Godzilla, Godzilla was stated to have survived exposure to the nuclear tests carried out in the South Pacific in the 1950s, even appearing to have withstood the detonation of Castle Bravo, a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb, at Bikini Atoll while directly next to the bomb. A testament to his durability is his survival of the extinction of the Dinosaurs that happened millions of years before his encounters with humanity.

Additionally, like his previous incarnations, Godzilla showed no outwards signs of damage from any weaponry used by the United States Armed Forces, including heavy gunfire, missiles, tank shells, and various other weapons. In fact, Godzilla seemed to not even notice most of these attacks, only flinching slightly at artillery fire striking him at point-blank range and briefly showing visible pain after being struck directly in the gills.

Energy absorption and projection

In Godzilla, Godzilla still feeds on nuclear radiation, and is able to sustain himself for millions of years at a time by absorbing geothermal radiation from the Earth's core.

It is also very possible that he absorbed the energy from the warhead that detonated offshore, both reviving him to full strength and preventing the West Coast from being doused by nuclear radiation.

Intelligence

While fighting the M.U.T.O.s during the events of Godzilla, Godzilla figures out their strengths and weaknesses through repeated clashes with them. He lets the male M.U.T.O. fly to attack him, and he then used his tail to slam him into a building, killing him. With the female M.U.T.O., he fired his atomic breath right into her mouth after forcing it open, making her neck explode, and decapitating her.

Senses

Godzilla has a very strong sense of smell or hearing in order to track down the M.U.T.O.s' locations from the ocean.

Speed and agility

When he was chasing the male M.U.T.O., Godzilla's swimming speed is said to be increasing from 33 knots. His tail is shown to be fast enough to hit the male M.U.T.O. on time in order to have him slammed into a skyscraper.

Stamina

Godzilla was at one point, also pinned underneath a skyscraper that collapsed on him, while he paused to catch his breath. It did not keep him subdued for long as he quickly got back to his feet to continue pursuing his enemy.

While the M.U.T.O.s fought Godzilla to the point of exhaustion, he managed to get back to his feet and return to the ocean in a matter of hours, showing no physical fatigue or injury. This could be a testament to Godzilla's durability, showing that he was either simply exhausted, or because of his healing factor that allowed him to recover from any wounds he sustained by sunrise.

Godzilla is shown to be able to travel for thousands miles for a long period of time to track down his enemies, and he does not show any signs of exhaustion when he reaches his destination to prepare himself for battle.

Strength

Like his previous incarnations, the Legendary Godzilla possesses immense physical strength and can use his huge mass as a weapon. He is able to toss both the male and female M.U.T.O. around with ease by biting into their bodies and he is able to effortlessly push the female M.U.T.O. backwards with his arms, like a bear would with its opponent. The strength of his tail swings are great enough to kill the male M.U.T.O. outright as well as knock over a large skyscraper by accident.

However, unlike previous incarnations, he didn't use his arms much to toss them around. This is due to his fighting style being modeled after those of bears and Komodo dragons which, despite having powerful front legs and sharp claws, use their jaws and teeth as their primary weapons.

Overall, this Godzilla's fighting style seems to be somewhat of a reversal of his previous incarnations, preferring to be in close quarters and direct combat with his targets rather than relying on his atomic breath or throwing objects. Godzilla might not be too much of a veteran fighter, and it could be possible that he has not fought for a very long time, as he shown to be quite inexperienced. Godzilla is also able to cause tsunamis just by going ashore.

Weaknesses

Despite being incredibly powerful, Godzilla does have a few weaknesses of his own.

M.U.T.O.s

While Godzilla is a powerful alpha predator of his prehistoric ecosystem, the M.U.T.O.s have evolved over millions of years to specifically hunt and battle his kind. As such, they have specific adaptations to counteract Godzilla in battle, such as hooked claws to snag his vulnerable gills, EMPs to disrupt his atomic breath, and different fighting styles for the male and female to confuse and tag-team against him.

Short arms

While Godzilla's arms are shown to be strong enough to pry open the female M.U.T.O's jaws and tear through the Golden Gate Bridge, they are shown to be too short to reach the top of his head: a weakness exploited by the male M.U.T.O., who latched onto the back of Godzilla's head just out of reach.

Vulnerable gills

A weakness that the M.U.T.O.s exploited in Godzilla was the set of gills that Godzilla possesses on his neck. Puncturing them caused him great pain and weakened him from repeated blows. This is also seen when he tried to make his way to San Francisco. A stray shot from the naval fleet managed to hit his gills and he toppled through the Golden Gate Bridge as a reaction.

Video games

A relic species of an extinct organism which stood at the top of the ecosystem that was bombarded with high density radiation during Earth's Paleozoic Era. It escaped to the deep sea during the mass extinction of all living things in the Permian period. Lurking for eons at the bottom of the ocean, where it managed to perpetuate its species, it appeared on land once again in the 1940s, when it was tracked by both U.S. and Soviet armies.

Able to walk upright vertically on two legs, it can survive on land, in water, and below the earth. It possesses tremendous physical strength, and in combat, most foes are overwhelmed just by the enormous destructive power of its long tail. Its ultimate weapon is the heat ray it blasts from its mouth.

Although his version of Godzilla was created in Hollywood entirely through CGI animation, the production team put great emphasis on giving it the sense of a costumed character. For the battle in the last scene, human movements were reproduced with CGI animation using motion capture technology, so that the characters' personalities would shine through, allowing audiences to empathize with them.

„

— MonsterVerse Godzilla Kaiju Guide bio

The MonsterVerse Godzilla appears as the final boss of the game when the player reaches 100 meters as Godzilla. When in the middle of fighting jets as Burning Godzilla, there comes a report of a kaiju heading for Godzilla. When the kaiju arrives, it appears to be another Godzilla, which the G-Force commander states that is impossible. When playing as the MonsterVerse Godzilla, you only grow in power, not size due the fact that this Godzilla is different from all the other kaiju in the game. When facing smaller monsters, the opposing monster will look up as the MonsterVerse Godzilla is bigger than them. It is also more difficult to hit smaller monsters as the MonsterVerse Godzilla as his claw swipes are aimed higher than where his opponent is. The MonsterVerse Godzilla is also one of the strongest monsters in the game, along side Burning Godzilla, Kiryu, and Super Mechagodzilla.

Trivia

While most TV commercials and promotional material depicted Godzilla as a destructive force, in the film he is actually more of an anti-hero as opposed to an outright antagonist as the trailers would have let the audience believe.

Unlike previous versions which frequently use their atomic breath in battle, this Godzilla only uses it as a last resort and only three times. It is likely that he is effectively "vomiting" up all his stored energy, and as such only uses it in an emergency defense as it drains his power quickly.

As he breathes with both lungs and gills, Godzilla is more similar to an amphibian as opposed to a true reptile.

Based on the medieval art of sea monsters shown in the prologue, it is implied that this individual Godzilla has been alive for at least several centuries and the sea monsters spoken of in myth and legend were in fact sightings of him.

In spite being called a "predator" of the M.U.T.O.s, he never eats them once he catches and kills them. It is likely that they are simply rival species, who Godzilla actively hunts and destroys as they pose a threat to the existence of his species.

Godzilla's story in the film bears many resemblances to "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi", a story from Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book featuring a mongoose:

Both Godzilla and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi the mongoose are faced with a mated pair of their natural enemies (the M.U.T.O.s/the cobras Nag and Nagaina) in which the female is the larger and deadlier of the two.

Both the M.U.T.O.s and the cobras are a dangerous threat to the humans and are raising a clutch of eggs which threatens to hatch into more of their kind.

Both Godzilla and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi hunt the pair for no moral or noble reason except for the fact that they are their natural enemies (yet by default are the 'heroes' as they are indirect allies of humans).

Both engage the male enemy first in combat, managing to kill him.

In both cases the antagonists' nest of unhatched eggs are destroyed, enraging the much more dangerous female.

The angered female directly threatens to kill a main human character, but is intercepted by Godzilla/Rikki-Tikki-Tavi who arrives in time and manages to kill her as well.

Both Godzilla and Rikki-Tiki-Tavi are honored for their deeds and become 'protectors' of sorts to the humans.

Godzilla is implied to be the last of his kind, as the M.U.T.O. spores were found in the fossilised skeleton of another member of his kind, suggesting that the "Godzilla species" was wiped out by the M.U.T.O.s with him as the sole survivor.

However they could be scavengers by placing there eggs in the corpes.

According to Ken Watanabe, he was originally supposed to name-drop him as "Godzilla", however, seeing both him and his character were Japanese, he insisted that the original Japanese name, Gojira, was more appropriate.

After the gills were added to this Godzilla design, they were later added to Godzilla's immature form in the 2016 film, Shin Godzilla.